VICTORIAN TRAMWAYS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12750, 22 April 1909, Page 4

VICTORIAN TRAMWAYS.

Mb Russell touched on another matter of considerable interest to Wanganui, in view oi' proposed tram extensions to the suburbs, and that was the Victorian tram system. He said that in Melbourne he saw tho evils of private ownership ia their most acute form. The trams there had a population of 540,000 to work on, and they carried only a total of about 60,000. 000 passengers. In the whole of the system there was only one short penny section. He understood that the company's concessions would expire in about four years, and he would not be surprised if the Victorian Government nationalised the tramways and united them to the railway system. What he had seen in Melbourne and Sydney had considerably strengthened his opinion that the Christchurch trams should have been nationalised rather than municipalised. The magnificent suburban railway system of Melbourne, . and the nationalised electric tramway system in Sydney, were largely contributing to the enormous development of those cities. They were pushed out from the centres, and they created traffic. People settled along the lines with astonishing rapidity. The Christchurch Tramway Board, of course, -had limited finances, and it had to move carefully, and could not do that kind of tiling. He was impressed with the manner of constructing a new line to La. Perouse, about ten miles from Sydney, where anew gaol was i>eing erected. The whole of the material was taken on the tram line at night. Tho line was not constructed like the expensive tram lines in New Zealand. It was on the principle of an ordinary railway line, with ordinary sleepers and mullockv stone. The overhead gear was attached to poles made of small round trees cut down to the desired size, and they were placed three or four feet in the eround, with sufficient concrete to hold them securely. Mr Russell could not ascertain the cost of the line per mile, but he believes that some cheap system of that nature could be applied to the extension of the tram lines to Marshland, Belfast, and other places without the capitalisation being so hi?»h as to prevent the work beinar undertaken by the Christchurch Tramway Board.